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Mirrorless Camera Maniac: How To Tether Wirelessly With Lumix

Shooting tethered means that your camera is connected to a computer and the pictures are saved to the computer while you shoot. You can do this by using a long USB cable or sometimes an ethernet cable from the camera to the computer. If you’re using a Lumix camera, though, you’ve got to buy Promote Systems software to tether with a cable.

Or, you can just connect to your computer wirelessly anywhere in the world with camera’s built-in wifi. Here’s how to do it on a Mac–I’d love some help from you writing this up for a Windows machine.

Setup the Computer

Find or create a folder you want your pictures to end up in (if you want to use Lightroom to Auto Import from this folder, it’s going to need to be empty).

Right click on the folder and check the box for Shared folder.

Now head to the System Preferences and choose Sharing.

Change your computer name to something very short so it’s easy to enter on the camera below. Type a new name in the bar then click Edit. (You’ll also be entering your computer’s log on password, so you might consider changing that to something easy to enter on the camera.)

Make sure File Sharing is on. Under Shared Folders, select the folder you jsut made and make sure it’s set to Everyone and Read & Write.

Go back to the System Preferences and choose Network.

Activate the button that says Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar–this will make it easier to select the camera’s wifi signal below.

Choose the Advanced button at the bottom and click on the WINS tab.

The NetBIOS Name should be the name you made above in Sharing. Workgroup should say WORKGROUP.

Setup the Camera Wifi

On your camera, go to the Menu and go into the Wrench Menu (it’s got an icon that looks like a wrench).

Choose the Wi-Fi menu (if you don’t see a wifi menu, then your camera can’t do wireless tethering).

Choose Wi-Fi Function then New Connection.

Choose Send Images While Recording then PC then Direct then Manual.

Back on the computer, choose the GH5-XXXXXX from the Wifi options in your Menu Bar. The name will be unique to your camera. Enter the password showing on your camera’s screen. It may take a few seconds for the GH5 signal to show up on your computer.

Now the camera will read, “Searching…”. Press the Menu/Set button, and wait while it says “Please wait..”. Click Manual Input and then enter your computer’s NetBIOS Name from above and then select Set.

Choose your shared folder, then type in your computer’s name–the name you use when you log on–and your password. Then choose Exit.

Conclusion

Now you’re ready to shoot with your camera and have all your photos transferred to the computer. This should work with all Lumix cameras capable of Wifi and I’ve personally used it with the GX8, GH5, GH4, and GX85. It works on both RAW or JPEG images, and the pictures are recorded to your SD card at the same time, so you’ve actually got two copies. Next time you want to shoot tethered to your PC, you can simply choose your PC from the History menu in the camera (if you use the same folder–if you change the folder, you’ll have to go through the process above again). Shooting tethered is a great tool so you can see your pictures in full resolution immediately. You’re going to love this technique.

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Levi Sim is passionate about making photographs and helping others make their pictures better, too. He’s a full-time photographer making business portraits and marketing and branding pictures for a living. He spends the rest of his time practicing all other kinds of photography and studying to be a better hunter. Read more of his articles here. And you can see more of Levi’s portfolio here.

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Wow, your approach to Wi-Fi tethering for the GX8 worked! I’ve spent 6 or 7 hours trying to use the methods described in the GX8 documentation—I use that word loosely here—and no luck, just so flaky the connection would drop every other shot. I bought the cable to use direct tethering but the USB Tether software from Promote Systems is crap on the Mac and doesn’t support Mohave. So you have really solved a big problem for me! Thanks so much. I would buy you lunch if you were here in Albuquerque. Cheers, Eric

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Eric Lee Smith

1 year ago

Wow, your approach to Wi-Fi tethering for the GX8 worked! I’ve spent 6 or 7 hours trying to use the methods described in the GX8 documentation—I use that word loosely here—and no luck, just so flaky the connection would drop every other shot. I bought the cable to use direct tethering but the USB Tether software from Promote Systems is crap on the Mac and doesn’t support Mohave. So you have really solved a big problem for me! Thanks so much. I would buy you lunch if you were here in Albuquerque. Cheers, Eric

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Reply

Trent Petrunia

8 months ago

I would really like to get this working, and am with you till the last step, where there’s no option to choose the ‘shared folder’, only asking for my ‘User Name’, and ‘Password’, I am assuming these are credentials for logging onto my computer, however there is no way to insert a space in the username. Please clarify I am using Lumix GX85. Thank you,

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